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METZ, "II" (Sub Pop)

Stupefying blends of earworms with pounding, distorted guitars will be found when listening to the new full length from Toronto, Canada’s own METZ. Without getting into (or attempting to get into) musical technicalities, the variety of time signatures demonstrates a high level of comprehension. “Acetate” is played with such an accentuation that it sounds like a skipping record. “The Swimmer” is like being hit in the bowels and wanting to be hit again. The chromatic thrashing of the guitar is just raucous. Melodically one might say “Spill You Out” gathers the kind of angst and pinpointed expressiveness of something from In Utero. The guitar solo in “Spill You Out” is completely devoid of any melody. METZ uses the interval the tritone a lot and I can’t help but think they use it to spite us because its a historically unpleasing interval in the west. I hear a lot, particularly in the guitar that reminds me of Queens of the Stone Age's Era Vulgaris. They both feature these awfully rhythmic, keyless guitar parts.

One thing to note about METZ, is that they write in a completely “collective” manner. “We very rarely will come to the rehearsal space with even a segment of a song” says singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. The way the band chooses to write songs highlights their own unconventionality. They have these chromatic and distorted guitar that completely rejects blues influences and most rock from the 20th century. They really only play at the dynamic “loud” that defies western convention that good music has to create some form of dynamic contrast. Rarely have I heard so little lack of change in dynamics. The lyrics seem to be pretty glib and really don’t sound to mean a whole lot to the music or the sound of the band. He might as well be saying anything. Edkins notes in an interview however, “A lot of things in everyday life drive me crazy: how we relate to each other; how politics, media, technology, money and medication influence our lives. This band, in a lot of ways, is an outlet”. I think METZ is a band that wants people to notice its lack of care about any of the conventions of “rock” music while still being in the context of that style of music.